Tuesday, October 19, 2004
BASEBALL WITH PILAF
Yes, it was another gray day in the northwest...
BASEBALL
Well, those were two crazy games on Monday night, were they not? The Boston/New York game took way too long, as usual, and the NL game was one that was masterfully pitched, as I flipped back and forth. I have to say that I thought both Johnny Damon and David Ortiz were safe on their steal attempts, though I don't think I would have sent either of them, and definitely not Boston's Papi. On the replay, to me it looked like Derek Jeter's glove touched the ground before it touched Damon, who had the bag before the tag was made. So I thought. Of course, Tim McCarver says "he's clearly out," and I'm sitting there thinking, "no he's not, you jackass." It made me want to throw a bucket full of ice water on him or something. I also had problems with Johnny Damon bunting, and Arroyo coming out after one inning. Sure, one might think about bunting in that situation (even though bunting is grossly overrated), but all I thought about was how many times Damon has possibly bunted over the course of the season. I don't care how badly he's sucking, bunting is something I'd expect the eighth or ninth hitters in the lineup to do, but not the leadoff hitter, who's been busy trying to get on base all year. His function is to get on base because the bashers are behind him. What's the use of wasting an out when there's Orlando Cabrera coming up followed by the big huge bats? My other problem was Bronson "Pinchot" Arroyo not coming out for a second inning after whiffing Alex and getting Gary Sheffield, which was incredibly clutch.
As for the NL game, Brandon Backe is this year's Bob Wolcott. Of course, if he follows the Bob Wolcott career track, we won't be hearing much more from him after next year. After Jeff Kent walked off, my first thought was "Barry Bonds has got to be ticked if he's watching this." I saw the Beltran catch live and I just couldn't believe he'd gotten to it. That killer bees sound effect to the tune of the Jaws shark music...that's gotta stop. If Saint Louis wins the final two games, we won't have to hear it anymore. I was sitting there watching this NLCS game and I realized after while that I wasn't hearing some crappy third guy in the booth (ref. Bret Boone ALCS last year). Why? The third guy in the NLCS booth this year is Bob Brenly, who was a broadcaster before he managed the Arizona Diamondbacks. It got to the point where I thought Steve Lyons was the one that sounded out of place in the booth. I guess I'm just glad Bret Boone isn't in the Fox booth this year. That was painful to listen to. At least Al Leiter is half-informative. I know I'd rather have him (or my dad) showing me and telling me what pitches do (even though I know already) than, say, Scooter.
You know what the Red Sox/Yankees series reminds me of? It reminds me of the Sonics/Bulls NBA Finals of lore. If I'm remembering right, the Sonics were down 3-0, losing both games at the United Center and the first game at KeyArena. They won the last two games at KeyArena before losing Game 6 back in Chicago. I see the same thing happening to the Red Sox Tuesday night. But if somehow this series went seven games after the Red Sox were down 3-0...yikes. It'd be something.
-- Hey, there's a Mariner article. I guess the bad thing is that it's Finnigan. Basically, it says that Grady Little and Mike Hargrove are at the top of the list. I guess for me, that's somewhat welcome news because I sure would put those two over Buddy Bell, Don Baylor, Jimy Williams, and Terry Collins. If I hear Jim Riggleman's name come up again, by the way, I may just hurl. Anyway, without knowing anything about his managerial tendencies, I have to say I like Hargrove the most out of this bunch. I think a search through our back pages will show that Jeremy liked Hargrove earlier, though I'm not sure if it was last offseason after he was fired and we'd already decided we hated Melvin. Wait, I guess one thing does come to mind about Hargrove if he managed here -- who would be his Paul Assenmacher? In somewhat related mid-'90s Indians news, Julian Tavarez pulled a Kevin Brown.
FOOTBALL
Rice Rice baby. Like Jeremy said, Jerry Rice isn't what he used to be. But without Koren Robinson (to be determined, but I think he'll be out) and without Bobby Engram, I like this move. Of course, if I told you five years ago that Jerry Rice would one day be traded for a conditional 7th-round draft pick, how would you have reacted? Also, this Koren thing with the substance abuse policy brought some other Seahawk substance abuse memories to mind: Chris Terry (though he violated when he was with Carolina) and Shawn Springs (which really ticked Holmgren off at the time because the whole secondary was leaning on him). And yeah, Grant Wistrom's knee is fractured, as noted by Jeremy earlier. I saw that on the ESPN BottomLine after the baseball games, and I thought, "dammit." If you scroll down to my game post, you can see what I thought of it right after it happened. The thoughts were along the lines of pouring salt on the wound. I know right after Chad Brown broke his leg, there were people noticing that this team is pretty much without either Brown or Anthony Simmons for some length of time over the course of a season. Now I guess we probably just add Wistrom to that mix. Yes, it's an injury trifecta, as opposed to the exacta it was, or duo.
I don't normally say a lot about college football, but when Josh Swogger is out for the rest of the year, it can't be good for the Cougs.
SONICS
Danny O'Neil has some short preseason assessments of the Sonics. Basically some answers and some new questions. He says the rebounding will be better, and that sounds good to me, because I can't remember the last time the Sonics were even decent at rebounding. Hell, even when they were good, I was complaining that they weren't getting enough boards. Also, in pretty simple terms, O'Neil says the defense still sucks.
On to Tuesday. Jerry Rice is a Seahawk. I'll be damned.
BASEBALL
Well, those were two crazy games on Monday night, were they not? The Boston/New York game took way too long, as usual, and the NL game was one that was masterfully pitched, as I flipped back and forth. I have to say that I thought both Johnny Damon and David Ortiz were safe on their steal attempts, though I don't think I would have sent either of them, and definitely not Boston's Papi. On the replay, to me it looked like Derek Jeter's glove touched the ground before it touched Damon, who had the bag before the tag was made. So I thought. Of course, Tim McCarver says "he's clearly out," and I'm sitting there thinking, "no he's not, you jackass." It made me want to throw a bucket full of ice water on him or something. I also had problems with Johnny Damon bunting, and Arroyo coming out after one inning. Sure, one might think about bunting in that situation (even though bunting is grossly overrated), but all I thought about was how many times Damon has possibly bunted over the course of the season. I don't care how badly he's sucking, bunting is something I'd expect the eighth or ninth hitters in the lineup to do, but not the leadoff hitter, who's been busy trying to get on base all year. His function is to get on base because the bashers are behind him. What's the use of wasting an out when there's Orlando Cabrera coming up followed by the big huge bats? My other problem was Bronson "Pinchot" Arroyo not coming out for a second inning after whiffing Alex and getting Gary Sheffield, which was incredibly clutch.
As for the NL game, Brandon Backe is this year's Bob Wolcott. Of course, if he follows the Bob Wolcott career track, we won't be hearing much more from him after next year. After Jeff Kent walked off, my first thought was "Barry Bonds has got to be ticked if he's watching this." I saw the Beltran catch live and I just couldn't believe he'd gotten to it. That killer bees sound effect to the tune of the Jaws shark music...that's gotta stop. If Saint Louis wins the final two games, we won't have to hear it anymore. I was sitting there watching this NLCS game and I realized after while that I wasn't hearing some crappy third guy in the booth (ref. Bret Boone ALCS last year). Why? The third guy in the NLCS booth this year is Bob Brenly, who was a broadcaster before he managed the Arizona Diamondbacks. It got to the point where I thought Steve Lyons was the one that sounded out of place in the booth. I guess I'm just glad Bret Boone isn't in the Fox booth this year. That was painful to listen to. At least Al Leiter is half-informative. I know I'd rather have him (or my dad) showing me and telling me what pitches do (even though I know already) than, say, Scooter.
You know what the Red Sox/Yankees series reminds me of? It reminds me of the Sonics/Bulls NBA Finals of lore. If I'm remembering right, the Sonics were down 3-0, losing both games at the United Center and the first game at KeyArena. They won the last two games at KeyArena before losing Game 6 back in Chicago. I see the same thing happening to the Red Sox Tuesday night. But if somehow this series went seven games after the Red Sox were down 3-0...yikes. It'd be something.
-- Hey, there's a Mariner article. I guess the bad thing is that it's Finnigan. Basically, it says that Grady Little and Mike Hargrove are at the top of the list. I guess for me, that's somewhat welcome news because I sure would put those two over Buddy Bell, Don Baylor, Jimy Williams, and Terry Collins. If I hear Jim Riggleman's name come up again, by the way, I may just hurl. Anyway, without knowing anything about his managerial tendencies, I have to say I like Hargrove the most out of this bunch. I think a search through our back pages will show that Jeremy liked Hargrove earlier, though I'm not sure if it was last offseason after he was fired and we'd already decided we hated Melvin. Wait, I guess one thing does come to mind about Hargrove if he managed here -- who would be his Paul Assenmacher? In somewhat related mid-'90s Indians news, Julian Tavarez pulled a Kevin Brown.
FOOTBALL
Rice Rice baby. Like Jeremy said, Jerry Rice isn't what he used to be. But without Koren Robinson (to be determined, but I think he'll be out) and without Bobby Engram, I like this move. Of course, if I told you five years ago that Jerry Rice would one day be traded for a conditional 7th-round draft pick, how would you have reacted? Also, this Koren thing with the substance abuse policy brought some other Seahawk substance abuse memories to mind: Chris Terry (though he violated when he was with Carolina) and Shawn Springs (which really ticked Holmgren off at the time because the whole secondary was leaning on him). And yeah, Grant Wistrom's knee is fractured, as noted by Jeremy earlier. I saw that on the ESPN BottomLine after the baseball games, and I thought, "dammit." If you scroll down to my game post, you can see what I thought of it right after it happened. The thoughts were along the lines of pouring salt on the wound. I know right after Chad Brown broke his leg, there were people noticing that this team is pretty much without either Brown or Anthony Simmons for some length of time over the course of a season. Now I guess we probably just add Wistrom to that mix. Yes, it's an injury trifecta, as opposed to the exacta it was, or duo.
I don't normally say a lot about college football, but when Josh Swogger is out for the rest of the year, it can't be good for the Cougs.
SONICS
Danny O'Neil has some short preseason assessments of the Sonics. Basically some answers and some new questions. He says the rebounding will be better, and that sounds good to me, because I can't remember the last time the Sonics were even decent at rebounding. Hell, even when they were good, I was complaining that they weren't getting enough boards. Also, in pretty simple terms, O'Neil says the defense still sucks.
On to Tuesday. Jerry Rice is a Seahawk. I'll be damned.
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